Port Control and Air Cargo Units complete the Strategic Trade and Export Control training

19-23 September 2022, Kumbor, Montenegro: As part of its efforts to enhance the capacities of the frontline customs and police officers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP) organized the final segment of the Strategic Trade and Export Control (STEC) training for the officers of the Port Control Unit (PCU) Bijača and Air Cargo Control Unit (ACCU) at the Sarajevo International Airport, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as PCU in the port of Bar, Montenegro.

The series of training sessions focused on building the units’ capabilities and enhancing their knowledge and experience to better detect, deter, prevent and combat illicit trafficking of strategic and dual-use goods. During the final week of training, participants discussed the risk of non-state actors exploiting the containerized supply chain, as is regularly the case with drugs and other illicit commodities, to traffic or deliver weapons of mass destruction or their component parts, which include chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials.

The participants further enhanced their knowledge on safety during the examination of suspicious cargo, small arms and light weapons, ammunition, and behavior analyses. The training session concluded with a final test that summarized all STEC modules presented previously.

The training was delivered as part of the EU-UNODC joint action on enhanced border control, currently implemented in South-Eastern Europe by the CCP and UNODC-WCO-INTERPOL Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP) in cooperation with the UNODC Regional Programme for South Eastern Europe, generously funded by the European Union.